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Wayward	By : suomynonakun Category: Pokemon > General Views: 3388 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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The gym had fast become a battlefield. Pools of blood were forming around the bodies of the Rockets he’d managed to take down with his daggers. He’d managed to recover his weapons after a well-placed roundhouse kick had knocked the blonde leader unconscious.

A quick throw of a blade took out the remaining agent, and Graveler, despite the type disadvantage, managed to knock out the poliwhirl with a vicious rock throw attack.

“Grav?” was the only noise in the entire gym as the pokemon looked at his trainer. Ash stood in silence a moment, removing the blood from the dagger in his hand with a flick of his wrist. He walked over and tugged the other blade from the Rocket’s chest.

“There’s more coming, Graveler,” Ash said to him, straightening and staring at the door, weapon in each hand. He looked at the pokemon. “You up for it?”

“Grav,” the pokemon said determinedly.

Ash spun the daggers so the blades were almost parallel to his forearms – it was easier to fight hand to hand that way. He could have picked up one of the guns his assailants had dropped, but he wasn’t nearly as good a shot as Gary. Stick with what you know was his motto.

“Alright then,” he said. “Rock throw.”

His pokemon obeyed just as the first wave of backup came charging through the door, surprised to be met with huge flying chunks of rock. Several were knocked back, but others managed to dodge, and Ash moved quickly to kill or disarm as many as possible.

Blades were certainly deadly when used correctly – and Ash had had plenty of training on how to use them and use them well – but they only did so much against angry Rockets toting submachine guns. Both his daggers were eventually lost when he had to resort to throwing them once more, killing two Rockets whose gunfire he would not have been able to evade.

There was the noise of shattering glass, and Ash spun to see five more Rocket’s repelling in through the windows of the gym.

“You best surrender now, Satoshi!” one of them cried, a kid hardly out of his teens. Ash remembered leading him on one of his first missions, when he’d been a nervous little rookie, barely seventeen. Oh how they grew.

There were at least twenty Rockets now. One called out her ninetails and another his arbok, and things became suddenly much more interesting. He reached for another pokeball but the Rockets knew better than to let him. A slew of gunfire flew at him and Ash sprinted toward Graveler, sliding feet first behind him, cutting his arms as they were drug across the torn up floor.

A light hiss was his only warning before the arbok reared up behind him, fangs dripping as it dove to attack.

“Pikachu!” screamed a little voice, and the arbok was hit with a thunder attack. Ash poked his head out from behind Graveler, looking in the direction the attack had come from and smiling at the sight of his little yellow pokemon.

Pikachu had sped into the gym, dodging quickly around the legs of the Rockets, heading towards Ash at full tilt.

“Ninetails! Firespin!”

A huge wave of fire rushed between them, cutting off Pikachu’s path.

The attention on Pikachu, however, was enough to give Ash the opportunity to pull out another pokeball and release Blastoise. A quick command and the big turtle began using hydro pump, aiming at the ninetails, who was caught by surprise and shoved across the room by the water attack, crashing into the wall with a pained whimper.

Under Ash’s direction, the pokemon then took aim at the Rockets themselves, knocking several of them off their feet. Many of them began slipping on the slick floor, and the gym essentially erupted into chaos.

He recalled Graveler as more and more of the gym became wet, knowing it would only pain the rock pokemon.

“Backup!” Ash heard a Rocket cry into his communicator. “Target will not go down! Repeat, we need backup!”

“Backup?” Ash muttered. How many agents had Giovanni sent? He couldn’t see much around the screen of water coming from his pokemon. “Pikachu!” he called over the roars of Blastoise and the rush of water. “Thunder! Aim for the water!”

There was a “Pika!” of agreement, and the room was suddenly lit up as the electric pokemon combined his attack with Blastoise’s. Screams filled the room as the Rockets caught in the water were electrocuted.

Both Pikachu and Blastoise stopped their attacks at the same time, and as the water stopped, Ash could better see the damage done. Several Rockets were dead, the rest, fortunately, appeared unconscious.

Pikachu picked his way across the wet floor, leaping to Ash’s shoulder.

“Nice job guys,” Ash said to both of his pokemon, recalling Blastoise and sloshing over to the Rockets who had been killed earlier with his knives, tugging the blades out of their bodies. “Let’s get the hell out of here before backup arrives, Pikachu.”

The pokemon ‘chaa’d’ in agreement and Ash turned to make his way out of the gym and find Gary.

A deep, heavy, rumbling stopped him in his tracks. He turned, slowly, staring at the far wall of the gym. Pikachu’s claws dug into his shoulder, ears lowering.

There was flash of movement in the shadows outside, followed by a deafening roar, and then the entire wall burst inward in a shower of glass and concrete. Lights flickered then went out, casting the arena into darkness.

~*~*~

After Gary’s words, the rebels finally snapped into action and realized the full gravity of the situation. Erika volunteered to go contact Professor Oak, and Blaine, Koga, and Lt. Surge decided to go with her, in case more Rockets showed up.

Meanwhile, Misty and Brock elected to go with Gary, who simply told them both not to get in his way before sprinting off down the hall toward the gym.

Running through the doorway, their feet splashed through large puddles of water that hadn’t been there when Misty had left. The arena was completely dark, but lit up quite suddenly as they heard Ash rasp out, “Thunder!”

In the illumination of the thunder attack, they could make out the destruction of the gym, as well as a huge hulking figure that looked unlike any pokemon any of them had ever seen.

Misty gasped. “What is that?” she exclaimed. It was almost like a Gyrados, but something was very wrong with it. The scales looked like stone and it had small deformed gray arms sticking out of it. On its face was a sharp but stunted looking horn.

Gary let out a curse, eyes immediately combing the gym for Ash.

The thing roared after the thunder attack, which, Gary knew would have laid any normal pokemon flat. Instead, he could see the shadow of a thick tail raise up and swipe across the floor. Eyes adjusting to the darkness Gary watched as it hit several unmoving bodies, shoving them viciously across the ground, but most appeared to be already unconscious or dead. Gary finally spotted Ash, on one knee and panting heavily with an arm wrapped around his abdomen.

Pikachu’s speed allowed him to dodge the tail, easily leaping over it, but Ash, clearly injured, wasn’t able to get out of the way. He was hit hard, and his body flew into the nearby wall with a painful crack, sliding down it into a crumpled heap.

“Pikapi!” Pikachu cried, scampering over to his trainer.

Despite herself, Misty took off toward Ash, nearly slipping on the wet floor as she rushed to his side.

“Misty!” Brock called, as the thing in the shadows moved again, as if to make another attack.

Gary maximized a pokeball and released a large bird pokemon that appeared to be made of steel. “Fury attack, Skarmory, aim for its head!” With a screech of agreement, the bird took flight, using its beak to peck at the head of the giant pokemon. The monster roared in anger and Skarmory provided for enough of a distraction that Gary and Brock were able to follow Misty’s path.

“I’m fine,” Gary heard Ash mutter to Misty as they came closer. He was pushing himself up slowly, but only made it to his hands and knees.

Pikachu gave a concerned whine.

“We’ve got to go,” Gary said, holstering one of his guns and reaching down to take Ash’s arm, yanking the man to his feet unceremoniously.

“Gary!” Misty exclaimed, as Ash gave a pained groan.

He knew his friend was hurt, but Skarmory wasn’t going to be able to distract that thing forever, and if they didn’t get out of the gym soon, it was possible they never would. They’d both been in similar scenarios before, and Ash had done the same when the situation called for it.

Ash leaned heavily on Gary for a moment, the world spinning as pain shot through his torso. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, and it took Gary a second to realize his friend was apologizing to him.

“Don’t,” he said. “Not right now.”

Ash nodded and called Pikachu to him. The little pokemon stayed at his feet, chattering something that made Ash shake his head.

“Misty, Brock,” Gary said, glancing at the two rebels. “Go. Hurry.” It would take him a minute to get Ash out of there, and he wanted them out of the way before the thing noticed them again.

They looked at one another, hesitating, and Gary could tell it was because they weren’t sure whether to trust them. Probably thought he’d shoot them when their backs were turned.

“Go!” he barked, and they finally moved, making a run for the door.

“Pikachu, go with them,” Ash said, figuring they might need some protection if they ran into more Rockets. Pikachu clearly wanted to stay with his trainer, but after a second gave a nod and a determined, “Chu,” and raced along behind them.

“So,” Gary said to Ash as he started quickly helping him along. “Fun night?”

Ash gave a pained sounding laugh. “Oh definitely,” he said.

“Do you know what this one is?” Gary asked, referring to the monster that was lashing back and forth as Gary’s pokemon flew just out of its reach. This was not the first time they had seen a creation like this. This was what happened when Giovanni gave Suzie pokemon and some high tech lab equipment.

“Looks like half rock, half water,” Ash replied. “I think it was a Gyrados at some point, but Pikachu’s attacks barely did anything to it.”

Gary knew that was saying something, since he’d seen how strong Pikachu’s attacks were, type disadvantage or not.

“We fight it in here the thing will end up crushing us anyway, whether we have pokemon who can take it or not,” Ash said.

“Agreed,” Gary replied. They weren’t far from the door, and if they were lucky any other reinforcements would be staying out of the gym until the monster in the arena was finished its rampage. “There’s no shame in a tactical retreat.”

“You mean running away like little girls?” Ash retorted wryly.

“Hey, my run is very masculine.”

There was an angry sounding roar and screech as the monster in the darkness finally caught Gary’s Skarmory in its large angry jaws.

“Oh, fuck,” Gary said. “Skarmory!” He pulled out his pokeball and recalled the pokemon before it was crushed.

The arena fell silent as the giant pokemon no longer had anything to bite. Then it gave a deafening roar and its large tail lifted up and dropped so hard the whole building shook. Gary barely managed to keep them both standing.

“I think now might be a good time for that masculine run,” Ash said, and Gary gave a grunt of agreement as the two of them started to sprint for the exit, Ash still leaning heavily on him.

“Hurry!” Brock called from where he and Misty stood at the door.

There was a noise of an attack powering up, and Ash knew the sound without having to look. “Hyperbeam.”

“Yup,” Gary said, gritting his teeth as he saw the attack forming in his peripheral. They were only a few feet from the door when it released the hyperbeam and they both made a dive for it. The blast of energy just barely missed them as they flew through the doorway, bleachers exploding instead of them. They ended up in a heap on the floor, but Gary had maneuvered it so Ash had at least landed on him instead of the other way around. “Ow,” he said, as his partner’s bo dug into his back. This was why he preferred guns. Easier to carry.

Ash groaned, the fall still having caused him a fair amount of pain. As he untangled himself from Gary he said, “I hate Suzie.”

“We need to get out of here,” Misty said as Ash and Gary got to their feet. Another roar came from the gym as well as some rumbling. It sounded like it was on the move.

“If that thing starts raging this whole building’s gonna come down,” Ash said.

“Walk and talk people; let’s move,” Gary said. He offered Ash his shoulder, but the other man shook his head, arm over his ribcage as they all started down the hall at a run. Pikachu scampered onto Gary’s shoulder so he wouldn’t accidentally hurt Ash any further. “We’re probably surrounded. What are our exit options?” Gary asked as they put some distance between them and the arena.

He and Ash watched Brock and Misty exchange wary looks.

“Hey kids, like it or not, you need us,” Gary said. “You’re outnumbered and you’ve only got one pokemon each. So let’s put the distrust aside for a few minutes and get the fuck out of here in one piece--” he glanced at Ash, who looked a little pale but was grimly keeping pace with them and amended, “One piece--ish.”

When a roar followed by another mini-earthquake occurred, Brock finally said, “There’s a way out through the shelter downstairs. There’s a tunnel that goes underground, far outside of town.”

Gary nodded. “Let’s go.”

“Where are the others?” Ash asked.

“Already down there,” Brock said.

They ran in silence, realizing the roars of the mutant pokemon seemed to be getting closer, and the crashes were probably occurring as it burst its way through walls. Finally they made it to the room Misty had led them to earlier – had it really just been that morning? – and opened the trap door.

“Ash, go first,” Gary said, but Ash shook his head.

“I’ll be slower, you guys go and I’ll follow,” he said, pulling a pokeball from his belt.

“Don’t be a hero right now—” Gary argued, but Ash ignored him, releasing Charizard.

“I’m not; I’m just covering our tracks.” Misty and Brock hadn’t gone yet, clearly waiting on the outcome of the conversation. “Go, I’m right behind you.” They hesitated but Brock seemed to realize time was of the essence and started to climb down the ladder.

Gary looked at him skeptically but followed once Misty went, Pikachu moving to sit on his head. True to his word, Ash was right behind him.

“Charizard,” he said. “Firespin.”

The pokemon let out a roar and did as he was asked. The room immediately lit up in a blaze, which Ash was hoping would spread out to the rest of the gym. At least then it would take a while for the Rocket’s to figure out where they had gone. He recalled Charizard and closed the trap door behind him, slowly making his way down the ladder, ribs protesting the movement.

~*~*~

“I want to see their bodies.”

“Sir?”

Giovanni stared at the image of the young man on his videophone. And stared. Saying nothing. Expression never changing. The young man shifted nervously. He’d been left in charge when the actual mission leaders that Giovanni had assigned had so foolishly gotten themselves killed.

“The gym was destroyed sir,” he tried again. “The Gyradon trashed most of it, and then somehow it was set on fire. It’s pretty much flattened.”

“Did I ask about the state of the gym?” Giovanni said with a calm, even, and somewhat dangerous sounding tone. “I asked for the bodies.” The irony did not escape him that he half wished it was Satoshi or Shigeru reporting to him now. They were by far the most competent of his subordinates. And if they weren’t dead and rotting, he was going to be extremely displeased.

“I—yes sir. We’ll comb the rubble,” the Rocket replied.

“Do that.” Giovanni hung up on the pathetic boy, and then made an outgoing call.

“Cassidy,” was the brusque answer. She was using a mobile communicator so no picture accompanied her voice.

“Status?” was his own terse reply.

“Town’s trashed, sir,” she said. “We’ve rounded up the survivors. Should have them any minute now, if they made it.”

There was a pause as Giovanni’s lips pressed together in a displeased frown. “I believe I said I wanted them alive.”

“Those hybrid monsters of Suzie’s are damn near uncontrollable, sir,” Cassidy said. “We had to recall it before it set all of Pallet on fire.”

“Contact me when you find them.”

“Yes, sir.”

~*~*~

It was hours before the dark tunnel they were in, lit only by Pikachu, who was using flash from his new spot on Brock’s shoulder, gave way into stairs. The group had been quiet the majority of the trek.

When they had climbed down into the safe-room, Blaine and Surge had guns pulled, pointing them at Gary and Ash.

Neither of them was really surprised at that welcome. Surge wanted to kill them, though he was met with resistance from Koga and Erika, who thought that they should just leave them behind, until Blaine pointed out that they knew enough of their plans to ruin everything they’d worked for.

Gary chimed in that whatever they decided they should probably do it quickly or they might as well all just eat bullets here and now.

In the end it was decided, upon suggestion from Misty, that Ash and Gary would come with them, disarmed, of course. That then brought up the question of their pokemon and had almost started another argument, because Blaine wasn’t going anywhere while these two traitors had pokemon, and Gary advised them that they could take them off his cold dead body.

Surge had raised his weapon and appeared to be about to oblige him when Ash silently undid his pokebelt and held it out to Brock.

Ash and Gary led the way up the stairs. None of the former gym leaders wanted them out of their sight. Koga had Gary’s guns and Erika was holding onto his pokemon, which he’d reluctantly given up after Ash had. Brock had Ash’s pokemon, Pikachu included (though everyone there knew that was more of a gesture than anything), and Blaine had his bo strapped to his back and was carrying his daggers.

Surge was right behind Ash and Gary, his gun out, just in case either of them tried anything. Ash, however, didn’t have the energy. He was pretty sure he’d broken at least one rib thanks to that hybrid pokemon of Suzie’s and the subsequent running and now hours of walking hadn’t exactly helped with the pain. He grimaced as they started up the steps, but stayed silent.

He focused on his footsteps, the echoes of their boots on the concrete, the noise of the rebel’s breathing, the rustle of clothes. If he didn’t, he’d start thinking again and he just couldn’t right now. Not when they were underground and miles away from Pallet.

When they’d started their trek, Erika had told Gary that she had managed to contact Professor Oak and deliver his warning. Ash was so relieved to hear it that he almost missed the rest of what she said, but managed to catch the part of how they suddenly lost connection with him. But they had to have been in time. They had to have. Professor Oak would get his mother and Gary’s sister and this wouldn’t be one more fuck-up of Ash’s to stack on top of the rest of his giant pile of failings.

If all of this was for nothing – if he’d failed his mom and Gary – he would gladly just let Surge finish him off.

The light of Pikachu’s flash suddenly hit a giant door. It was a thick metal bulkhead that Ash might have expected to see on a ship.

“Go on and open it,” Surge said to Gary and Ash.

“Oh so now we’re here for your manual labor?” Gary replied, crossing his arms.

“Gary,” Ash said, before Surge could angrily respond. “Can you really blame them?”

Gary glanced at Ash, then back at the rebels before sighing and taking hold of the big metal wheel in the middle of the door. Ash moved to help but Gary waved him off, aware he was hurt. It was obvious the door hadn’t been used in a very long time, and Gary had almost broken a sweat by the time the wheel started to turn, making a loud noise that sounded like groan as it moved. Using his shoulder, Gary shoved it open and they were able to see the silhouettes of trees and some stars through the thick foliage.

“We can make camp here for the night,” Blaine said. They had stored emergency supplies in the safe room, and all of the rebels now had a pack on their backs. Koga shut the door behind them. It was actually extremely well hidden, disguised as part of a giant boulder. Ash might have missed it if he hadn’t known it was there.

“You need to keep moving,” Ash said with a shake of his head. “They’ll find that tunnel soon enough once they realize none of the bodies in the rubble are any of us.”

“He’s right,” Brock agreed. “We need to make our way south as quickly as possible and rendezvous with everyone else.” Erika had also managed to get out a message to the Officer Jenny overseeing training of their forces at the Safari Zone before they had had to destroy the computer equipment to avoid the possibility of the Rocket’s using it to get information on their operation.

“Well this has been great and everything, but Ash and I have a pressing engagement in Pallet Town,” Gary said. “So we’ll take our things and be out of your hair.” He held out his hand.

“Do we look like idiots?” Surge growled.

Gary looked at Ash then back at the large blonde man. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

Surge began to raise his gun again when Brock said, “You have to see why we can’t just let you leave. There’s too much on the line here.”

“Did you guys all miss the part where they were trying to kill us?” Gary asked. “We’re not just going to run back to that – Giovanni wants us dead as much as you, now.”

“Dead?” Misty piped up, looking directly at Ash. “Is that what you two were here for?”

“See?” Surge said. “Let’s just kill them and be done with it.”

“Stop it, Surge,” Erika snapped, and, surprisingly, the large man listened.

Misty was still looking at Ash. “Our orders—”

“Ash,” Gary interrupted, but his partner just shook his head and continued.

“Our orders were to find out about any rebellion you were planning and then terminate you all once we did,” Ash told them truthfully.

Surge didn’t look surprised, but the rest seemed to have trouble letting that sink in. Misty and Brock in particular looked a bit stricken.

“I can’t believe you would…” Misty said, trailing off, unable to even finish the thought.

“He said our orders,” Gary pointed out. “Not our intentions.”

“What exactly were your intentions then?” Blaine asked.

“Well up until the point where Rockets came in guns hot, this one was talking about betraying Giovanni and joining up with you folks,” Gary replied, jerking his thumb at Ash. “Which is probably why we got such a sudden visit.” He looked at his partner, “He must have bugged us, somehow.”

“We should have checked,” Ash agreed. “It was sloppy.”

“Is it possible you’re still bugged?” Koga asked.

Ash and Gary exchanged looks. Ash sure as hell hoped not, otherwise Giovanni probably already knew about the people in the Safari Zone. Which would likely lead to a slaughter. He was pretty sure they would have noticed a bug on their clothes, though.

“I don’t think so, but…” He looked at Gary.

“Oh, no,” Gary said, apparently catching the meaning of the look. “Come on. Really?”

Ash just tilted his head and gave a helpless sort of shrug. “Better to be safe.”

Gary sighed. “Fine. Do it.” He closed his eyes, clearly bracing for something. The former gym leaders looked confused.

“Pikachu,” Ash said to the pokemon that was now standing at Brock’s feet, right in the middle of their impromptu captors. “Thundershock.”

Thinking, for a moment, that Ash was attacking them, the rebels all took steps back, reaching for their weapons.

But when the pokemon released the lightening it was aimed at both his trainer and Gary. This wasn’t the first time they’d needed to short out unwanted tech. Ash was so used to getting shocked over the years that his only sign of discomfort was a grimace. Gary, however, staggered a little once the attack was over, until Ash reached out and steadied him. Their hair was sticking up a little more than usual.

“Well, if we were, its short circuited now,” Ash told the group, who all looked a bit taken aback.

“Can we please just have our shit now?” Gary said after taking a minute to recover.

“You’re really planning to go to Pallet?” Misty said. “You’ll have to go by Viridian; it’s like walking right into Giovanni’s hands.”

“Are we forgetting that that’s probably what they want to do?” Surge said. “They played us from minute one, who’s to say that’s not what they’re still doing?” Blaine and Koga nodded in agreement.

“You’re worried about your families,” Erika piped up. “But, I told Professor Oak to get to the Safari Zone. I’m sure that’s where they’ll be. Wouldn’t it be better to go there with us?”

“It’s too far out of the way,” Gary said with a shake of his head. “Especially if you don’t intend to go past Viridian and go all the way around instead,”

“You keep talking about it like you have a choice,” Surge said.

Ash was silent, thinking this over. “Gary,” he said, pulling him aside and speaking in a very low tone so the rest wouldn’t hear. “If they’re alive, they’re headed for the Safari Zone. Or Giovanni already has them. But if he’s keeping them it’s because he wants leverage on us. Staying out of his grasp means they’ll be safe. At least for now. If we get to the Safari Zone and they aren’t there we can decide what to do then.”

“Or, we could just kick these guys asses, take our stuff, and then make a plan from there.”

“I’m a little bit tired for ass kicking right now,” Ash admitted. Gary had almost forgotten he’d been injured.

Gary frowned. He didn’t like not heading straight for Pallet, but he couldn’t deny Ash’s points made sense. “Fine.” He held up a finger. “But I reserve the right to revisit the ass kicking plan at a later time.”

Ash shook his head but couldn’t hide a smile. “Fair enough.”

~*~*~

A/N: What is this? I wrote something? I’m as shocked as you all. I’m starting to get a little more time in my life and that writer’s block slowly seems to be fading. (I’m going to do a study on the quantity of free time vs. the quantity of writers block as there seems to be a fascinating correlation.)

I’ve had the first few pages of this on my computer for… well, years. Yes, literal years.

I’m hoping this whole updating thing is going to start to become more regular. If you’re new to the story, I hope you like it, if you’re one of those few people who actually have stuck it out waiting for a new chapter, I hope it was worth it. If it wasn’t, well. I don’t know what to tell you. Sorry?
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Wayward